Judge Albert McCaig of the 506th Judicial District Court handed down a 119-year prison sentence for Stroble, 99 years for the aggravated sexual assault charge and 20 years for the indecency charge.

Stroble was arrested in 2007 under the suspicion that he was in possession of child pornography. One of Stroble’s ex-girlfriend’s, Melissa (who declined to give her last name for this story), was living on his property with her then-boyfriend (and current husband). Melissa discovered a pornographic videotape Stroble had made of her 9-year-old daughter and turned it over to the Waller County Sheriff’s Office.

Sgt. Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff’s Office Sex Crimes Unit led the subsequent investigation and said that the video and additional images recovered by police depicted the sexual assault of Melissa’s daughter, among many other troubling images.

“I was shocked,” Melissa said. “Just complete disbelief.”

Melissa met Stroble in 1997 when she was pregnant with her youngest daughter. She would go on to have two sons with Stroble during the course of their relationship.

Her discovery of the videotape was only the beginning of a sad and sickening tale that would reveal that Stroble likely had inappropriate contact with what Melissa, police and prosecutors believe to be up to a half dozen children.

For the two and half years following his arrest, Stroble sat in jail while the case made its way through the Waller County courts. Prosecuting attorney Fred Edwards of the Waller County District Attorney’s Office said the long wait for a ruling also was a result of the number of children involved in the investigation.

Just prior to the start of a juried trial in February, Stroble pled guilty.

While his guilty plea likely eliminated the need for extensive courtroom testimony from Stroble’s victims, Melissa said the ordeal was no less emotionally devastating for her daughters who did testify.

“It was very difficult, especially for the 18-year-old (then the 9-year-old victim),” Melissa said. “She came out of the court room crying.”

Melissa, Edwards and Cantrell all believe Melissa’s daughter wasn’t Stroble’s only victim.

“I’m certain of five children,” Edwards said, while Cantrell said the number could even be six or seven.

During the course of the trial McCaig viewed approximately 40 computer images of the child assaulted by Stroble, as well as a series of drawings that Edwards said depicted an “incestuous relationship with a daughter.”

“The list just goes on,” Edwards said. “There was just a bottomless pit of offenses.”

“Stroble’s the worse case we’ve seen through here the last five years,” Cantrell added. “This ranks number one.”

Stroble’s arrest record and disturbing behavior go back at least 17 years. In 1992, he was convicted in Archer County of indecency with a 13-year-old child and again in Harris County in 1993 with an 8-year-old child.

He served time in a state penitentiary and was required to register as a sex offender. But his original charges were only the beginning of a terrifying trend. Near the time of his relationship with Melissa, Stroble fashioned a van after the “Mystery Machine” depicted in the Scooby Doo cartoon series, outfitting it with stuffed animals and video games.

Melissa said Stroble would drive the van out to places popular among children, such as local ballparks and SplashTown performing stunts in the van to attract children.

Edwards called Stroble’s “Mystery Machine” a “classic ploy to lure children.”

Melissa said his behavior did not arouse her suspicion at the time, but that he could be “very manipulative.”

“I thought he was a hard working, decent person,” she said. “But he was very good at what he does.”

Edwards said that during Stroble’s trial, a Magnolia ISD elementary teacher testified that Stroble would appear at her school campus to visit his children dressed as a clown.

Since Stroble had children who attended the school, and since Magnolia ISD administrators were unaware that he was a registered sex offender, Stroble was permitted on the school grounds.

Edwards explained that during the process of the investigation, authorities would come to learn about what he called Stroble’s “grooming techniques,” or a “systematic way to break down the emotional resistance to being sexually assaulted.”

“It goes on for a number of weeks, months, years,” Edwards said. “It’s a very progressive thing designed to break a kid’s resistance. It’s not a classic example of a violent confrontation; it just kills the spirit of the kid. Ricky was very adept at that.”

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